The office of the state Attorney General in Hawaii issued the first version of their report on Wednesday and the timeline provided is probably the most detailed one so far related to the devastating wildfire that occurred at Lahaina in August last year. The infamous town where historic resorts are located was nearly nullified due to the wildfire that ensued, taking the lives of 101 people.
According to the report, compiled by the Maryland-based Fire Safety Research Institute, the first emergency calls regarding the fire came in at 2:It was 8:55 pm on August 8th. Impressively enough, within 5 minutes of the call, a fire engine was already en route. By 2:At 57 pm when firefighters passed the site of the burning problem, they already could see the smoke.
The report narrates the race cleared between the first responders and the deadline. By 3:At 2 am, thirty-five firefighters reached the scene. This was a big fire and it was growing at an alarmingly rapid rate. Just five minutes later, at 3:At 05 pm, firemen informed us that the first structure was an open shed that started to smoke.
Unfortunately, the initial reaction got turned out to be no match to the fire intensity. The paper discusses that the winds were strong as a result of the approaching hurricane that was moving downslope creating embers in great speed and increasing the intensity of the spread of the wildfire. the speed with which everything spiked took care of it and the town was soon immersed in flames that made people witness devastation.
Attorney General of the State of Hawaii, Anne Lopez, observed that the forest fire was the most destructive in the state. “The report is but a tiny piece of the picture like phase one of our conclusion,” Lopez said. “We are dedicated to the task of making a more comprehensive plan regarding this catastrophe so that in the future our neighborhood will never face such calamity again.”
The lineage of the timeline gives several details that are vital for understanding the key moments of the Lahaina fire. It pinpoints the immediate response of emergency services but then goes on to point out the insurmountable devastation drawn by the wind of the hurricane.
The Fire Safety Research Institute is likely to publish additional findings of the report for the next few months which will shed more light on the cause of the inferno. The anticipating reports likewise focus more on the causes responsible for the rapid spread and the victims’ lost lives.
